Holy Cross Orthodox Church of Midland and Odessa
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Our New Name:  Holy Cross Orthodox Church

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

On September 23, 2009, we received word that His Grace Basil, Bishop of Wichita and Mid-America in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, has given us our permanent name.  The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Mission of Midland and Odessa is now Holy Cross Orthodox Church.  Our congregation rejoices to bear the name of this glorious instrument of our salvation in Christ, and we are pleased to have passed another milestone in the long process of becoming a full-fledged parish church.

Leading up to this, we held a general meeting on September 15, and voted to submit to Bishop Basil our first, second, and third choices for our name:  Holy Cross, St. James (the Brother of God), and St. Michael (the Archangel). His Grace could have given us any name of his choice, but he affirmed our first choice.

Our annual parish feast day will be September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.  Our parish hymn or troparion (some would say our "fight song") will be the apolytikion of this feast, "O Lord, Save Thy People."  Our parish icon will be the icon of the feast (shown on the left).

"...for behold, through the Cross, joy hath come to the whole world." (from the prayer after the Gospel in Sunday Orthros).


Finally, the Orthodox Church Has Come to the Permian Basin!

For many years, Orthodox Christians in the Midland-Odessa area had to travel to San Angelo, Lubbock or Abilene for worship. Since October 2008, weekly services have been happening in Odessa at the Westminster Presbyterian Church (whom we thank for the generous loan of their facility). We began with 8 and have grown to about 30 souls currently. Most of us are American converts, but we have cradle members of Syrian, Ukrainian, and Egyptian ancestry. All are welcome.

In January 2009, His Grace Bishop Basil of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America sent us the Very Rev. Fr. Michael Keiser to celebrate our first Divine Liturgy and become our pastor. Fr. Michael lives in Florida, but serves several mission start-ups for the Department of Missions and Evangelism of the Antiochian Archdiocese.

He is now coming about one Sunday a month to celebrate Orthros (matins/morning prayers) and the Divine Liturgy (the Holy Eucharist). He hears confessions during Orthros.

On other Sundays we serve Great Vespers (evening prayers), led by Reader Mark and/or Subdeacon Mark. Our choir director is Anne Spires. Our services are all in English, with occasional tidbits in the more common languages of Orthodox lands.

We are looking forward to the time when we are able to rent or own a meeting place of our own, and ultimately build a traditional church temple. We also hope to have a resident priest someday, by God's mercy.

Meeting at:

Westminster Presbyterian Church
4901 Maple Ave
Odessa, TX 79762

Corner of JBS Parkway across from the entrance to UTPB.  One block south of Hwy 191 from Midland.

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Phone: 432-528-0026
inquiries@orthodoxmidlandodessa.com
 
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